Henry VIII: Tyrant, Genius, or Madman?

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[00:00:15]ebooks.

[00:00:20]The age in which young Henry VIII grew up was when seen from the perspective of later centuries one in which an old order was dying of the medieval world.

[00:00:32]But it scarcely seems so to those who lived in it. The change most visible to the eyes of a ruler was the creation of the modern European state system. This novelty, menacing and baffling, was no remote phenomenon. Across the channel, the new French monarchy had emerged much strengthened from the Hundred Years War.

[00:00:51]Louis XI 11th and his son Charles VII were no longer mere heads of a loosely integrated group of feudal principalities. They ruled a united and populous France from the channel to the Mediterranean. The most formidable of French feudatorries, the king of England, had been finally expelled from the land where his predecessors had been great lords and claimments to an equality with the house of France. Only Cala remained to the heir of William the Conqueror and Henry Plantaginate. Henry Plantagant being Henry II. Go back to the earlier epochs if you're interested in that. So, you know, that's saying that's talking about the Ajavin Empire where the king of England ruled from, you know, like the Scottish marches all the way down to the Pyrenees. Most of France, all of the Aquitane, all of Normandy and Picad and Onju and on and on and on. So, those days are long gone.

[00:01:44]The king of England has only really got a small enclave of of Calala. We lost the Hundred Years War in the end.

[00:01:51]Churchill continued saying, quote, Meanwhile, the cadet branch of the French Royal Lion, the House of Burgundy, which had for nearly a century disputed the authority of the kings of France, had come to an end with the death of Charles the Bold in 1477. Louis XI 11th, contrived to lay hands on Burgundy itself. All the rest of the Beandian inheritance passed through the marriage of Mary of Burgundy to the Holy Roman Emperor, Maxmleon, German. Basically very often the Holy Roman Emperor is German. It sure there is no Germany, right? There's no actual Germany fully in our modern sense, our modern conception of of Germany until well Bismar really in the 19th century.

[00:02:36]However, there's the Holy Roman Empire which again isn't Germany but it's something adjacent to that. I'll leave it at that. It's it's complicated but okay. The Holy Roman Emperor Maxmillian.

[00:02:51]Henceforth the Habsburgs controlled the duches, counties, lordships and cities that the Dukes of Burgundy had with craft and fortune acquired in the Netherlands and Belgium. Now Habsburg and Valwis, meaning France, confronted one another on the northeastern frontiers of France. Isn't that something that's happened again and again and again? couple of times in the 20th century. No, the Germans and French clashing horns on the northeastern frontiers of France. It's been happening since the ancient world. It was the opening of a long struggle. But although time was to show the instability of royal authority in France, the Valwis kings ruled over a unity that could be called a French state. And the head of that state had come out of the long struggle with England doubly strengthened. He could now raise taxes from non- noble classes without any need to appeal to the estates. And he had a permanent army. With his revenues, he could hire Swiss infantry, make and maintain his great artillery park, and take into his pay the ardent chivalry of France. One medieval state seemed to defy this process of aggregation and concentration. The Holy Roman Empire was visibly in dissolution. It's really a relatively loosened together coalition of small states and principalities is the Holy Roman Empire. Some say it was it certainly wasn't holy. It was nowhere near Roman and it wasn't an empire.

[00:04:24]Others say no, it was exactly that. It was very holy. It was it it was Roman.

[00:04:30]And if it's not an empire, then what was it? So people have argued over exactly that. But okay, Churchill saying it was in invisible dissolution. But for two generations past, the emperor Roman emperor had been the head of the house of Habsburg and what arms could not do diplomacy and luck did. As emperor Maxmleon was forever illustrating the difference between reach and grasp, but he had married the greatest heirs in Europe. The house of Austria thus began to act on the maxim of gaining its major victories by marriage. In the next generation, the council was followed with even more brilliant results. For the Archduke Phillip, heir of Maxmillian and Mary, married an even greater heirs than his mother. The infant Joanna heir to Castile, Aragon, Sicily and Naples.

[00:05:22]Remember Castile and Aragon is basically Spain. The kingdoms of Sicily and Naples was most of Italy. Okay. All right. It was her sister who had accelerated the rise of the House of Tuda by marrying Prince Arthur, Henry VII's older brother, who died of natural causes before he came to the throne. And after him, Henry VIII, that is, of course, Katherine of Araggon. In this world of growing power, the king of England had to move and act with far fewer resources than his neighbors. His subjects numbered not many more than three millions. He had smaller revenues, no standing army, no state apparatus archable only to the royal will. And yet by the mere proximity of France and the Imperial Netherlands, England i.e. the Netherlands were controlled by well the Habsburgs ultimately ultimately Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, Imperial Netherlands. England was forced to play a part in European politics. Her king was involved in wars and negotiations, shifts in alliance and changes in the balance of power of which he had little experience and could only in a secondary degree affect. In this changing world where battle on land was decided by the invincible Spanish infantry of Gonalvo de Cordova the great captain or occasionally by the Swiss infantry and the terrible cavalry of Gaston Devoir or other generals of the French king. The old politics the old tried recipes of war and victory that had stood English kings in goodstead for so long were of little avail. I sort of the age of the black prince or Henry V. Edward Edward III. If you just go out there with enough Dash and Elan, enough highly trained Welsh archers, you can win the day against overwhelming odds. No, not really. Not anymore. Church goes on. And so for a century, the rulers of England had to move wearily, threatened with disaster and conscious of dangerous weakness if any shift of continental politics should leave England alone in face of France and Spain. End quote. So this is the age really. It's already started but in Her8's time it's the main thing. There's basically a giant three-way power struggle between France, Spain, imperial Spain and England. You know, classic three-way power struggle.

[00:07:44]If any one of those three gets too overly powerful, the other two will gang up against them as a matter of course, as a matter of existential threat.

[00:07:53]That's always going to happen over and over and over again. Churchill goes on, quote, "Until the death of his elder brother, Prince Arthur, Henry had been intended for the church." So as a child, all his formative years, he was told, you know, your older brother is going to be king. Your father's king after him, your older brother's going to be king, and you're going to be a sort of priest, a bishop, an archbishop, maybe one day a cardinal if you're lucky. So that's how he was raised with that in mind. And so he was, as you can imagine, taught all about theological things to a high degree. Church says he had therefore been brought up by his father in an atmosphere of learning. He supposed to be well read. Much time was devoted to serious studies, Latin, French, Italian, theology, music, and also to bodily exercise, to the sport of jousting at which he excelled, to tennis, real tennis. That is quite a different sort of indoor thing to you know normal tennis we have these days and hunting the stag. All kings nearly all kings loved the hunt. His manner was straightforward and he impressed one of the cleverest women of the age Margaret of Austria region of the Netherlands as a young man on whose word reliance could be placed. Owing to his father's careful savings, he had at his accession, you know, when he gained the throne, more ready money than any prince in Christendom. The ambassadors reported favorably on him. This is a quote from the time. His majesty is the handsomest potentate I have ever set eyes on above the usual height with an extremely fine calf to his leg. His complexion fair and bright with orin hair combed straight and short in the French fashion and a round face so very beautiful that it would become a pretty woman. His throat rather long and thick. He speaks French, English, Latin and a little Italian.

[00:09:54]Plays well on the loot and harpsicord.

[00:09:57]sings from a book at sight, draws the bow with greater strength than any man in England, and jousts marvelously. End quote. Of course, that's sick of fancy, isn't it? But nonetheless, it paints a picture of him, does it? It won't be entirely untrue. Another quote from the time describes him as this. He is fond of hunting and never takes his diversion without tiring eight or 10 horses, which he causes to be stationed beforehand along the line of country he means to cover. He is extremely fond of tennis, at which game it is the prettiest thing in the world to see him play. His fair skin glowing through a shirt of the finest texture. End quote. Again, of course, sick of fancy, but once again gives us a snapshot of a moment in time, doesn't it? Churchill goes on, Henry in his maturity was a tall, red-headed man who preserved the vigor and energy of ancestors accustomed for centuries to the warfare of the Welsh marches. i.e. he was big and strong. His massive frame towered above the throng and those about him felt it in a sense of concealed desperation of latent false and passion.

[00:11:06]A French ambassador confessed after residing for months at court that he could never approach the king without fear of personal violence. Although Henry appeared to strangers open, jovial, and trustworthy, with a bluff good nature, which appealed at once to the crowd, even those who knew him most intimately, seldom penetrated his inward secrecy and reserve, which allowed him to confide freely in no one. To those who saw him, often he seemed almost like two men. One the merry monarch of the hunt and banquet and procession, the friend of children, the patron of every kind of sport, the other the cold, acute observer of the audience chamber or the council, watching vigilantly, weighing arguments, refusing, except under the stress of great events, to speak his own mind. On his long hunting expeditions, when the courier arrived with papers, he swiftly left his companions of the chase and summoned the counselor's attendant for what he was want to call London business. So already we're getting the even as a young man, we're getting the impression that he's got not exactly a split personality, but he can do two things. He can be, just as I've read there, he can be kind and jovial and friendly and quite often as he got older anyway, in an instant turn into a terrifying tyrant. Literally an instant mid-sentence. You know, that's that's scary, isn't it? That's worrying. One minute he's laughing and joking with you and you haven't done anything and suddenly he's in a rage. Bit scary.

[00:12:40]Churchill says bursts of restless energy and ferocity were combined with extraordinary patience and diligence.

[00:12:48]Deeply religious, Henry regularly listened to sermons lasting between one and two hours and wrote more than one theological treatise of a high standard.

[00:12:58]He wrote about Martin Luther. In fact, again, he's living through the very age of Martin Luther and the wars of religion in Europe and the birth of Protestantism. And to begin with, remember, he was raised as a child or as a teenager to to be in the church, a man of the cloth. So, he, you know, he he's actually trained. He knows all about that sort of stuff. When he was young to begin with, he hated Martin Luther.

[00:13:25]Hated him and Protestantism. That's just heresy. That's just heresy. Nothing more. Something evil. Well, as his adult life continues, there's a change over the years. In the end, a full 180. But we'll get to all of that. He was accustomed to hear five masses on church days and three on other days. Served the priests at mass himself, was never deprived of holy bread and holy water on Sunday, and always did penance on Good Friday. His zeal in theological controversy earned him from the pope the title of quote defender of the faith quote. So he's such a good boy as far as the pope and the church in Rome was concerned that the pope gave him a special title defender of the faith. An inddehaticable worker, he digested a mass of dispatches, memoranda and plans each day without the help of his secretary. though he was willing and able to actually do the business of government. Not all kings are, of course, not even close. But he was he was interested. He was interested in not only the appearance, but also the reality of power. Again, what I said earlier, he's it's his way or the highway, it's his will. Anything that stands in that way, even a relatively seemingly in inconsequential piece of paper, nothing will stand in the way of what he wants or a secretary that might keep things from him. No, he needs to know everything. Needs to be at the heart of everything. He is the center of the world in his mind. Well, and was well, the center of England anyway. He wrote verses and composed music, profoundly secretive in public business.

[00:15:08]He chose as his advisers men for the most part of the meanest origin, Thomas Woolsey, the son of a poor and rascally butcher of Ipsswitch, i.e. a nobody, whose name appears on the burough records for selling meat unfit for human consumption. Thomas Cromwell, a small attorney. Thomas Kner, an obscure lecturer in defininity. Like his father, he disputed the hereditary nobility, preferring the discrete council of men without a wide circle of friends. End quote. So, I've already introduced you to Suffukk, his brother-in-law and his actual friend. Norolk, his go-to military man have mentioned their Thomas Woolsey plays a massive part in the story to become Cardinal Woosey.

[00:15:53]mentioned there Thomas Cromwell who as I said we've already got a whole bit of content talking all about the life and career of Thomas Cromwell also mentioned there was Thomas Kramer another key player there's so many key players in the age of Henry VII and Elizabeth I and Queen Mary Thomas Kramner becomes Archbishop and plays a massive role in the story even beyond Henry VIII Thomas Kramer I've wanted to do a piece of content just about Thomas Kramer in fact I will okay so hopefully you'll keeping a lot of these names in your head, trying to get them straight. Or if you've watched any dramas, there's been lots and lots of dramatizations, haven't there, about Henry VIII and Mary and Elizabeth and things, you may well be may well well be familiar with all these people already. Churchill goes on, early in his reign, he declared, I will not allow anyone to have it in his power to govern me. End quote. There you go. Sort of says it all, doesn't it? I am the boss 100% 100% of the time. Anyone who na anyone who sort of dreams of going against me is in deep trouble. As time says, as time passed, his willfulness hardened and his temper worsened. His rages were terrible to behold. There was no noble head in the country. He once said, quote, "But he would make it fly."

[00:17:15]Quote, "I lop their head off if his will were crossed. Many heads were indeed to fly in his 38 years on the throne." This enormous man was the nightmare of his advisers. Once a scheme was fixed in his mind, he could seldom be termed from it.

[00:17:31]Resistance only made him more stubborn, and once embarked, he always tended to go too far and less restrained. Although he prided himself on his tolerance of any expression of opinion by his advisers, however outspoken, it was usually unwise to continue to oppose him after he had made up his mind. His highness, as Sir Thomas Moore put it to Woosey, esteemth nothing in council more perilous than one to persevere in the maintenance of his advice because he hath once given it. I.e., It's okay to argue with Henry a tiny bit to begin with, but only if he hasn't made it perfectly clear what his thinking is.

[00:18:12]And once Henry has made it perfectly clear what he wants and what his thinking is, that's it. Don't go against it. After that point, you are then in actual physical danger if you do. Okay.

[00:18:23]The only secret of managing him, both Woolsey and Cromwell disclosed, after they had fallen, was to see that dangerous ideas were not permitted to reach him. But arrangements of this sort could not be complete. His habit was to talk to all classes, Berbers, huntsmen, his yman, cook of the king's mouth, and particularly anyone, however humble, connected with the sea, to fer it out opinions, and ride off on hunting expeditions which sometimes lasted for weeks. He showed himself everywhere.

[00:18:56]Each summer he went on progress through the country, keeping close to the mass of his subjects whom he understood so well. Almost his first act six weeks after the death of his father in 1509 was to marry his brother Arthur's widow, Princess Catherine of Aragan. He was aged 18 and she was 5 years and 5 months older. She had made great efforts to fascinate him and succeeded so well that while Ferdinand and Henry VIIth had made plans for the match long beforehand, and had obtained from the Pope a dispensation for a marriage within the degrees of affinity prohibited by the church. There can be no doubt that Henry was eager to complete the proceedings.

[00:19:39]End quote. I.e., okay, there's a slight problem there. The idea that you marry your brother's widow. I mean, uh, not just that it's like in slightly bad taste, though it is, but actual sort of religious and legal problems. Well, we'll get into all of that later because it becomes of king importance, sort of state level political importance. I'll leave it for a little bit later when we get up to the the Amberlin years.

[00:20:05]Katherine was at Henry's side during the first 22 years of his reign while England was becoming a force in European affairs, perilous for foreign rulers to ignore. I.e. out of the big three, Spain, France, and England, England was by far the least powerful of those three. But that's sort of beginning to change. I mean, it's the richest of the three, but in almost every other way, the least powerful. Well, the balance of power is becoming a lot more equal, at least, should we say, until she reached the age of 38, she remained, apart from three or four short lapses, the mistress of his affections, restrained his follys, and in her narrow way helped to guide public affairs between the intervals of her numerous confinements, being pregnant. She was pregnant many, many times. only actually had one child that survived into adulthood, but we'll get into all of that. A girl, Mary.

[00:21:02]Henry settled down to married life very quickly in spite of a series of misfortunes which would have daunted a less robust character. The Queen's first baby was born dead just after Henry's 19th birthday. Another died soon after birth, a year later. In all, there were to be five such disappointments.

[00:21:20]Terribly sad. I mean, apart from anything else, infant mortality, even up to the 19th century, was extremely high. Extremely terrifyingly high. If you made it out of infancy, you were one of the lucky ones. But throw on top of that, if you're just unlucky, a bit on top of that. Yeah, you could have six pregnancies and only one child lived. Churchill goes on saying the king continued the standing alliance with his father-in-law Ferdinand of Aragon.

[00:21:51]Remember he's married Katherine of Aragon. So right, so he's related by marriage now to Spain and any children he might have with Katherine of Aragon are connected to Spain by blood. Right.

[00:22:03]He continued his standing alliance with his father-in-law Ferdinand of Aragon which had brought honor and wealth to England. He supported the pope and was sent the golden rose, the highest distinction which could be conferred on any Christian prince. He deliberated with his father's grave counselors, William Waram, Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of Canterbury, Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester, Thomas Ruth, Bishop of Durham and Royal Secretary, and under their guidance pursued for a short time the policy which his father had always favored, isolation. I mean, you know, don't get embroiled in continental wars. You can't afford it.

[00:22:44]It's probably doomed to failure. Just look at the Hundred Years War. So, his father's policy of isolation, provided that France continued to pay tribute.

[00:22:53]But Henry was on the edge of the vortex of Europe's new politics. Should he plunge in, the richest cities of Europe had changed hands many times during the past few years, paying tribute on each occasion. Frontiers were altering almost from month to month. Ferdinand of Aragon, Katherine's father, had conquered the kingdom of Naples, which is half of Italy easily, and the two French border provinces of Sardal and Rousenel. Other princes had done nearly as well. Amid the alluring vistas of conquest, which opened up before Henry, his father's aged counselors remained obstinently men of peace. Henry VIIIth had only once sent English levies abroad, preferring to hire mercenaries who fought alongside foreign armies.

[00:23:40]Henry VIII now determined that this policy should be reversed. For some time he had been watching Dean Woolsey of Lincoln, a discovery of the Marquis of Dorset, whose sons had been to Magdalene College School at Oxford when Woolseie was the master there. Dorset had liked Walsie well enough to invite him to stay for the Christmas holidays and had provided him with several livingings.

[00:24:05]The young priest then obtained a post as chaplain to the governor of Calala.

[00:24:10]Besides academic learning, Woolseie possessed a remarkable aptitude for negotiation and finance. Just remember, he came from nothing. His father had been a butcher, perhaps even a bad butcher that sold rotten meat. So he's he comes from nothing. Woosey. But after becoming the chaplain to the governor of Cala, he had been berser at Magdalene College Oxford and Henry VIIIth sensing his abilities had taken him over from the governor and employed him on minor official business abroad as one of the king's men albeit a relatively minor one at this point. The old king Henry Tuda Henry the 7th. But already that's quite something isn't it? going from just a butcher's boy becoming a dean or a priest moving in higher higher circles until you catch the eye of the king himself and you're so capable that he decides to employ you. He was promoted by Henry VIII to the council board in November 1509 with the office of Almona to the royal household. He was then aged 36. Two years later, Woolseie's growing influence may be perceived in the decision to join the Holy League against France. For it was in the same week that Woosey signed his first documents as an executive member of the council. So there is one of the most powerful men in England. He was put in charge of preparations for the war and his former pupil, the young Marcus of Dorset, was commander-in-chief. France was preoccupied with Italian adventures and Henry planned to reconquer Bordeaux which was lost 60 years before while King Ferdinand invaded Ne and independent kingdom lying a thwart the Pyrenees and the Pope and the Republic of Venice operated against the French armies in Italy. The year was 1512 and this was the first time since the 100red years war that an English army had campaigned in Europe. The English expedition to Gaskini, much more in central southern France, failed. Ferdinand took the whole of Ne and according to Dr. William Knight, the senior English ambassador in Spain, showed great zeal, passing his cannon across the Pyrenees and inviting the English to join him in operation against France. But the English found that the style of warfare they had learned in the Wars of the Roses with long bows and ponderously armed mounted men had become obsolete on the continent. Both Ferdinand and the French employed professional infantry, Swiss and Austrian, who advanced at a great pace in solid squares with 18 ft pikes bristling in every direction. The primitive firearms of the day, known as aquabuses, were too heavy and slow firing to inflict serious damage on these fast-moving squares. Ferdinand sent a great deal of military advice to Henry and suggested that he should use his gathering wealth to procure an overwhelming professional force of his own. But before Henry could adopt this plan, Dorset's army, as unaccustomed to Gascon wine as to French tactics and ravaged by dissentry, disintegrated. The troops refused to obey their officers and boarded the transports for home.

[00:27:20]Dorsit abandoned a fruitless campaign and followed them. After negotiations lasting throughout the winter of 1512 to 1513, Ferdinand and the Venetians deserted Henry and the Pope and made peace with France. The Holy League, they concluded, although high sounding in name, had proved futile as a political combination. In England, the responsibility for these failures was cast on the new adviser, Woolsey. In fact, it was in the hard work of administration necessitated by the war that he had first shown his abilities and immense energy. The lay members of the council, however, had from the beginning opposed a war policy managed by a priest and had intrigued to get rid of him. But Henry VIII and the Pope never wavered. Pope Julius II, who had been besieged by a French force in Rome, had excommunicated the entire French army, and now grew a beard, an adulment, then out of fashion, and swore he would not shave until he was revenged on the king of France. Henry, not to be outdone, also grew a beard. It was like his hair. He arranged to hire the emperor Maxmillian with the imperial artillery and the greater part of the Austrian army to serve under the royal standard of England. The emperor we are told was requested to spread his standard but refused to do so i.e. join the fight but refused to do so saying he would be the servant for the campaign of the king and St. George. These arrangements though costly were brilliantly successful. Under Henry's command, the English with Austrian mercenaries routed the French in August 1513 at the Battle of the Spurs, so called because of the rapidity of the French retreat. Bayard, the most famous knight in Europe, was captured together with a host of French notables. Tuoni, the richest city of all northeastern France, surrendered at the mere sight of the imperial artillery and was occupied by an English garrison. to crown all Queen Katherine who had been left behind as regent of England sent great news from the north again that year of 1513.

[00:29:25]Churchill describes it like this aid their French ally the Scots in the king's absence had crossed the Tweed in September and invaded England with an army of 50,000 men. Thomas Howard, then Earl of Surrey, son of Richard III's Duke of Norfolk, slain at Bosworth, was still under the family attainer, was nonetheless entrusted with the command.

[00:29:48]This skillful veteran, the only experienced general left in England after Dorsit's failure, knowing every inch of the ground, did not hesitate to march around the Scottish army, and although outnumbered by a two to one, placed himself between the enemy and Edinburgh. At Flood and Field, a bloody battle was fought on September the 9th, 1513. Both armies faced their homeland.

[00:30:09]The whole of Scotland, Highland and Land alike, drew out with their retainers in the traditional schulrons or circles of spearmen, and around the standard of their king. The English archers once more directed upon these redoubtable masses a long, intense, and murderous arrow storm. Moreover, the bills or axes in the hands of English infantry were highly effective against the Scottish spears in hand-to-hand assault, while the English cavalry awaited the chance of piercing the gaps caused by slaughter. When night fell, the flower of the Scottish chivalry lay in their ranks where they had fought, and among them, King James IV. This was the last great victory gained by the longbowow.

[00:30:51]Surrey that is Thomas Howard was rewarded by the restoration of the Norfolk juke. So Thomas Howard becomes the Duke of Norfolk in Scotland. A year old child succeeded to the throne as James V. His mother the regent was Henry's sister Margaret and peace now descended on the northern border for the greater part of the reign. Fitting celebrations were arranged in Brussels by the emperor's daughter Margaret of Austria. Henry, now 22, was permitted to spend whole nights dancing in his shirt with the leading beauties of the imperial court. In this, the Milan ambassador reported, he performs wonders, leaping like a stag. The council had forbidden gaming and the presence of women in the English lines, but for him, the ambassador added, the Austrians provided everything. His rewards were princely. He, Henry VII, would just give things out, give money and presents. His rewards were princely.

[00:31:48]He never sat down to the table without losing in a royal manner. I again giving things away. And the chief personalities were gratified with rich presence. End quote.

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